Sell the home, but avoid a tax trap - April 2011

A simple tax election can save a fortune in unexpected bills for the vendor of a care home, but the details need to be agreed between the parties before completion of the sale. Ian Sutton of Suttons Capital Allowances explains.

Selling a business may well be the biggest financial transaction we ever undertake. Inevitably, for such a major one-off transaction, we will depend on our various professional advisers in various ways: gaining the best possible value, minimising any resulting tax liabilities, and ensuring that nothing comes back to haunt us once we have left it all behind...

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Tax breaks for the taking - April 2011

Despite articles appearing in the professional press for years, many care home owners are still missing opportunities to claim tax breaks on their properties. The tax saving potential can be huge, as Ian Sutton of Suttons Capital Allowances explains.

It is something of an open secret that many care home owners are sitting on a pot of gold in the form of unclaimed tax breaks. The reason the tax relief often goes unclaimed is simply that this is a complex area, poorly understood by many professional advisers. If you buy a care home and the allowances are not properly claimed, the taxman is certainly not going to point it out, so the tax relief simply gets forgotten...

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Tax savings for care homes - April 2011

The March Budget brought unexpected good news for some businesses, with big cuts in the headline rates of corporation tax. For most care home owners, though, the tax pressures continue relentlessly to grow. The reducing rates of corporation tax bring no benefit for smaller companies or for unincorporated businesses. Meanwhile, the increase in VAT at the start of the year was followed three months later by a big hike in National Insurance rates, cutting the take-home pay of many employees while increasing the cost to employers.

There is still a glimmer of light for many home owners, though, in the form of unclaimed tax breaks. These tax reductions, in the form of capital allowances, offer huge potential savings for owners who have bought, extended or renovated their care homes. If you are paying either income tax or corporation tax on the profits of running a home, you may be able to wipe out your next tax bill or even generate a substantial tax refund...

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